Bill Clinton calls for GOP to improve - not repeal — Obamacare

LITTLE ROCK, ARK. – Former President Bill Clinton, recruited by the White House to explain the misunderstood health law, is looking to play Obamacare peacemaker.

In a highly-anticipated speech from his presidential library, Clinton challenged Republicans to finally work with Democrats to improve on President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement instead of constantly trying to undermine it..

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Clinton's full remarks on Obamacare

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“We all get paid to show up to work, and we need all hands on deck here,” Clinton said in anhourlongspeech Wednesday, just weeks before millions can start signing up for the law’s new insurance coverage.

Clinton gave a well-received speech clearly explaining the complicated law at the Democratic National Convention last summer and the Obama administration invited him to make another attempt at cutting through the confusion just weeks before Americans can start signing up for the law’s new insurance coverage. But in his Little Rock speech he delved into the details, discussing everything from accountable care organizations in western Pennsylvania to how the health law encourages doctors to wash their hands.

Still he spoke about the law’s future in ways that Obama could not. He called out specific problems with complex legislation and held up his native Arkansas as a model of bipartisan Obamacare compromise. Clinton called for bipartisanship going forward, about a month after Obama scolded Republicans for making repeal their “holy grail” and as Republicans prepare to return to Congress next week ready to resume their push for defunding.

Clinton’s speech is at the forefront of the administration’s larger effort to deploy a campaign-style operation to meet its self-imposed goal of signing up 7 million people on new health insurance marketplaces in the first open enrollment period, starting Oct. 1 and lasting through March. Expect to start seeing the Obamas and Bidens popping up around the country over the next six months, and more and more big-name celebrities attaching their name to the health care law

The former president scolded Republicans for voting to repeal the law 40 times but failing to come up with real solutions. And he outlined in wonkish detail how the lesser known provisions of the law could tamp down health costs while improving how Americans get their care.

“You’re gonna get some of that in a Clinton speech, but it was peppered with enough specifics and peppered with enough elementary discussion that I think most people could glean the message pretty easily,” Arkansas Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe told POLITICO. “I thought he struck the right tone – informative, and informative in a way that’s Clinton’s known for, where it’s understandable.”

Though the White House has teased Clinton’s Obamacare moment for more than a week, a speech isn’t going to turn around years of negative public opinion on the health care law just weeks before people can start signing up for health insurance. Once people actually start getting benefits, the White House hopes it will improve public opinion, which has barely budged since Obamacare became law more than three years ago.